When you are a female my age but have no chronic health issues, most of your doctor interactions involve cancer checks: pap smear, mammogram, dermatologic exam, colonoscopy. They occur at wide intervals, ranging from one to ten years, and while I try to keep on schedule, it’s not the sort of pressing thing I think about daily.

In the couple of months preceding the shelter-in-place order, I realized it was time for me to get my regular checkup, but I was also distracted by the increasingly ominous news from abroad, busy at work, and traveling, first to Hawaii for our wedding anniversary then to NJ for our son’s recital. So I just put it off.

Now that SARS-CoV-2 is upon us, anticipating a worsening of availability of health care activities as more people contract Covid-19, I wanted to get my overdue screens out of the way, but the only appointments I could make online were video or phone appointments, which are not suitable for either cancer screens or general checkups. Since no one offered to reduce my huge monthly premium to reflect the level of service actually available, I scheduled a call with my primary care physician and, glory be, was able to snag one of her two/day live appointment openings.

I’m sure this sounds selfish, and it is. I did inquire whether anyone in medical distress would be denied an appointment if I took one; apparently at this point the live appointments usually go unfilled. I also asked if I would be putting the doctor at risk by requiring her to come into the facility, but she assured me there is “no work-at-home option for doctors.”

Now let’s think about cancer screens and other preventative activities that go on at checkups. Are they effective, or are they meaningless revenue-generators? If the latter, by all means, let’s drop them. If the former, then statistically, it is highly likely that canceling all such activities for several months will result in some cancers or other conditions that would have been prevented otherwise.

This is a choice, and someone has made this choice.

The health facility was pretty empty and I was the last patient of the afternoon so my doctor and I had a short chat. She told me three interesting things, from which you may draw your own conclusions.

• The leading theory as to the rapid spread of this coronavirus is that it is asymptomatic in a large number of individuals, probably mostly younger people, not just during a latency period after infection, but for the duration.
• The doctors have plenty of time to chat in-between phone and video visits, and they are concerned about the number of scheduled colonoscopies being canceled. They feel these should be evaluated case by case, and are urging reversal of the decision in specific cases, with mixed success.
• She is ok with my current weight, but does not want me to lose any more.